^TagMicrosoft

^{Type
post

Author
Caitlin Cory
Date
July 28, 2021

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Media

Tagged
Alexa, apple, Audrey, Cortana, Microsoft, Mohamad Awad, Roz Burch, Siri, Smart Adaptive Voice "SAV", text-to-speech technology, Website Voice}

You Can Now Hear Our Articles When You Are Driving or Sweeping Up

_{Curious about that "loudspeaker" icon that has recently appeared in our articles?} _{Caitlin Cory

July 28, 2021

3

Artificial Intelligence, Media}

You may have recently noticed a new icon that’s appeared on your screen at the beginning of our articles. If you press the little black button with the loudspeaker icon, you will find our article being read aloud for you. This exciting new application – which will make it easier for our readers to enjoy our content even while driving, doing chores, or running errands – is made possible by WebsiteVoice advances in artificial intelligence technology. WebsiteVoice is a text-to-speech application that converts blog posts and online articles into audible material. It serves over 4,000 clients worldwide in 30 different languages. Founded by Mohamad Awad and Roz Burch, the WebsiteVoice team calls itself “a group of avid readers and podcast Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Heather Zeiger
Date
July 22, 2021

Categorized
Data Privacy, Events

Tagged
Antony Blinken, China, cybersecurity, hacking, Hafnium, Kellen Dwyer, Microsoft, Microsoft Exchange Server, NATO, Nicole Perlroth, This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends (book), U.S. Department of Justice, Wall Street Journal, zero-day hack}

U.S. and Allies Formally Accuse China of Exchange Server Hack

_{This isn’t the first time the Chinese-backed hacker group has infiltrated organizations} _{Heather Zeiger

July 22, 2021

7

Data Privacy, Events}

On Monday, July 19, three cybersecurity announcements were made: In response to the massive Microsoft Exchange Server hack, the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Norway, Japan, the E.U., and NATO formally accused the Chinese government of engaging in harmful cyberactivity. The U.S. Department of Justice published its indictment of four Chinese hackers associated with the Chinese government, known as APT40. The FBI, CSIS, and the NSA published a cybersecurity advisory cataloging the fifty tactics, techniques, and procedures used by Chinese state-sponsored hackers. Then, on Tuesday, the CSIA and the FBI published a report on state-sponsored international hacking groups that included accusations that the Chinese state-backed hackers infiltrated thirteen oil and natural gas pipeline operators between 2011 and 2013. In Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Jonathan Bartlett
Date
July 9, 2021

Categorized
Business and Finance

Tagged
Automation, Facebook, iOS applications, Microsoft, Microsoft Windows, Productivity, technology investment}

Is Technology Running Backward?

_{Technology isn't adding value anymore. It's adding expense.} _{Jonathan Bartlett

July 9, 2021

4

Business and Finance}

I’ve been a computer nerd since I was a young child. My dad bought the family a TI 99/4A before I even went to Kindergarten, and I basically started programming when I learned to read. As I grew up, the thing that fascinated me most about technology was the ability to automate. Automation, in theory, is supposed to make people’s lives better. It’s supposed to take the drudgery out of work, to leave people to focus on the more creative aspects of their work. With a word processor, I can type, correct, spellcheck, rewrite, and reorganize in an instant. I can even maintain old drafts easily. With a spreadsheet, I can keep track of all my income, expenses, grades, goals, Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Heather Zeiger
Date
October 12, 2020

Categorized
Global Technology, Programming, Social Media, Surveillance, Technocracy

Tagged
Ai Fen, censorship, China, Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Chinese Human Rights Defenders (organization), COVID-19, Fang Fang, Featured, Gitee, GitHub, Li Wenliang, Microsoft, Peter Hessler, Wuhan, Wuhan Diary (book)}

China: COVID-19’s True History Finds an Unlikely Home — GitHub

_{The Chinese Communist party, rewriting the COVID-19 story with itself as the hero, must reckon with truthful techies} _{Heather Zeiger

October 12, 2020

9

Global Technology, Programming, Social Media, Surveillance, Technocracy}

For a brief window of time at the beginning of 2020, China’s internet censors didn’t block stories about Wuhan and COVID-19, the coronavirus. Caixin, a widely-read news magazine, published a multi-page investigative report on everything leading up to the outbreak, including the way in which the provincial authorities in Hubei, of which Wuhan is the capital, suppressed knowledge of the virus. Fang Fang, an award-winning novelist, kept a Wuhan diary online on Weibo, which was recently published as a book in the U.S. (HarperCollins 2020). For that short time, comments on the coronavirus were not being censored (Wired) at WeChat. Many people were thus able to vent their frustrations and pay their respects when 32-year-old ophthalmologist and whistleblower Li Wenliang Read More ›

Curious boy looking out the window with binocular

^{Type
post

Author
Robert J. Marks
Date
September 23, 2020

Categorized
Business and Finance, Programming

Tagged
Apple (company), Bill Gates, Bill Gates Sr., Bing, Excel, Featured, Internet Explorer, Microsoft, Microsoft Word, MS-DOS, Netscape, PowerPoint, WordPerfect, X-Box}

Has Microsoft Ever Really Innovated?

_{That’s a question worth asking, with a history of litigation winning out over innovation} _{Robert J. Marks

September 23, 2020

6

Business and Finance, Programming}

An interesting question in a 2010 discussion thread at Quora is “Why has Microsoft seemingly stopped innovating?” A deeper question is “Has Microsoft ever innovated?” Microsoft’s Bill Gates should be celebrated as a gifted and highly competitive entrepreneur and businessman. But his background as a computer scientist and student of algorithmic information theory is questionable. For this reason, Bill Gates’ assessment of the future of AI should be questioned. Undergraduate Gates dropped out of Harvard University to pursue the founding of Microsoft. He was a knowledgeable programmer with early computer hardware but his more significant talents as an entrepreneur did not require deep studies in computer science. Much of his success came from his business instincts and his team of Read More ›

iron chain and castle on the silk national flag of Hong Kong with beautiful folds, the concept of a ban on tourism, political repression, crime, violation of the rights and freedoms of citizens

^{Type
post

Author
Heather Zeiger
Date
July 9, 2020

Categorized
Business and Finance, Data Privacy, Ethics, Global Technology, Surveillance, Technocracy

Tagged
___longform, Apple (company), China, Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Facebook, Featured, Google, Great Firewall, Hong Kong, Hong Kong National Security Law, Instagram, Microsoft, Telegram, Tik Tok, Twitter, WhatsApp, Zoom}

Hong Kong: Tech Companies Face Serious Ethical Decisions

_{As Hong Kong is transformed into a police state, Western companies, faced with demands for snitching on users, are rethinking cozy relationships with China} _{Heather Zeiger

July 9, 2020

7

Business and Finance, Data Privacy, Ethics, Global Technology, Surveillance, Technocracy}

The semi-autonomous region of Hong Kong is no longer semi-autonomous, at least in practice. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), circumventing Hong Kong’s parliament and courts, passed the Hong Kong National Security Law on June 30 that effectively abolishes the “one country, two systems” regime outlined in the Sino-British Joint Declaration. The law was passed one day before the anniversary of the handover of Hong Kong to China (July 1, 1997), in time to quash any pro-democracy candidates who would likely win in the September elections. Although the CCP justifies its moves from the Hong Kong Basic Law and claims that Hong Kong will maintain autonomy, in practice, it has already arrested dissidents and formed a secretive agency called the Office Read More ›

Flying futuristic central processing unit. electronic circuitry within a computer that carries out the instructions of a computer program performing arithmetic, logic, controlling.

^{Type
post

Author
Robert J. Marks
Date
April 29, 2020

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Medicine and Health

Tagged
AlphaGo, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Data Mining, Deep Mind, Featured, IBM Watson, Microsoft}

Coronavirus: Is Data Mining Failing Its First Really Big Test?

_{Computers scanning thousands of paper don’t seem to be providing answers for COVID-19} _{Robert J. Marks

April 29, 2020

4

Artificial Intelligence, Medicine and Health}

If Alphabet’s Deep Mind or Microsoft had successfully data mined the 29,000 papers and found useful coronavirus information, that would be pretty impressive. But they appear to be giving others a chance to try instead, raising issues once again about the value of data mining in medicine.

^{Type
post

Author
Jay Richards
Date
March 22, 2020

Categorized
Business and Finance, Ethics, Religion

Tagged
Catholicism, Featured, Microsoft, Pontifical Academy for Life, Regulatory capture, Vatican}

Why Does the Vatican Need Microsoft?

_{Should the Church really partner with IBM and Microsoft to make pronouncements on tech regulation?} _{Jay Richards

March 22, 2020

6

Business and Finance, Ethics, Religion}

When giant corporate actors like IBM and Microsoft promote “transparency and compliance with ethical principles?”, we run the risk that they are helping to craft regulations that hinder future competitors (“regulatory capture”). Rather than partner with them in making statements, the Church should stay clear.

^{Type
post

Author
Brendan Dixon
Date
February 13, 2020

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Ethics

Tagged
Microsoft, Seattle University}

AI has changed our relationship to our tools

_{If a self-driving car careens into a storefront, who’s to blame? A new Seattle U course explores ethics in AI} _{Brendan Dixon

February 13, 2020

4

Artificial Intelligence, Ethics}

A free course at Seattle University addresses the “meaning of ethics in AI.” I’ve signed up for it. One concern that I hope will be addressed is: We must not abdicate to machines the very thing that only we can do: Treat other people fairly.

^{Type
post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
October 31, 2019

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning

Tagged
Alchemy, AlphaGo Zero, Amazon, Artificial Intelligence, Consciousness, COSM, George D. Montanez, Google, Homonculus, Machine Learning, Matt McIlwain, Microsoft, non-algorithmic, Oren Etzioni, Ray Kurzweil, Robert J. Marks, Singularity}

Is Ray Kurzweil’s Singularity Now Nearer — or Impossible?

_{In response to Kurzweil’s talk at the COSM Technology Summit, panelists noted that AI achievements are revolutionary in size but limited by their nature in scope} _{Denyse O'Leary

October 31, 2019

4

Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning}

George Montañez, Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Harvey Mudd College, took issue with Kurzweil’s claim that AlphaGoZero needed no instructions to beat humans at the game of Go: “For a system like this to work, a human must define the incentive structure, also encoding the assumptions.” The sheer power of a computing system does not cause it to do anything at all.

^{Type
post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
October 24, 2019

Categorized
Machine Learning, Medicine and Health

Tagged
AlphaGo, Artificial Intelligence, Bill Dembski, COSM, Craig Mundie, DeepMind, General Artificial Intelligence, George Gilder, health and medicine, Machines, Medicine, Microsoft, Open AI}

Former Microsoft Head of Research: Machines Will Soon Know Better Than Your Doctor

_{Other experts at the COSM Technology Summit were skeptical of Craig Mundie’s claims} _{Denyse O'Leary

October 24, 2019

3

Machine Learning, Medicine and Health}

Mundie, former Microsoft Chief Research & Strategy Officer, formerly told his audience that Big Data will enable each person to be “completely understood” by machines that can produce a computer facsimile of each detail. It would be far too complex for human physicians to make sense of, he said.

^{Type
post

Author
Robert J. Marks
Date
August 1, 2019

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Education, Work

Tagged
apple, Augmented Reality, Donald Trump, Google, Microsoft, Spelling, Tom Caudell, Uber}

Random Thoughts on the Passing Scene: How to Spell Gud

_{Also, Google and Apple ditching college degree requirements is not really that new} _{Robert J. Marks

August 1, 2019

4

Artificial Intelligence, Education, Work}

Twenty years or so ago, when I worked in Seattle, Microsoft was famous for the testing coding skills of their applicants and asking Mensa-like questions. Degrees were secondary.